So I'm driving down the autobahn the other day and I hit a straight strech with little to no traffic and I decided to put my foot in it. I go thru the gears and get into 5th which has had a bad syncros since I got the car (all the other gears are fine it just grinds a little bit going into 5th). No problems at this point, everything moving along as it normally does when I pull up on some traffic. I downshift into 4th and slow down to go thru traffic and once it had cleared I got back on the throttle. I go to shift into 5th and it wont go in. I wasn't grinding or making any funny (read: expensive) noises it just won't go into 5th. At this point I think to myself "Cool.....I really wanted to pull my tranny right before the club starts doing meetings again....". I get off the autobahn to go home and shift down thru all the gears as I come to a stop. Still no problems with any of the other gears. The road toward my house has a couple of straights that you can get the car into 5th on so I decided to give it a try. To my amazement it goes into 5th just like it normally does, little grind and all. I chalk it up to the rotary demons and go about my buisness. The next day I get back out on the bahn and basicly the same thing happens...I go thru the gears all the way to 5th then downshift into 4th thru traffic and try to get back into 5th afterwards to no avail. I drive around for a bit in town going back and forth from 1st to 4th untill I hit another straight and expected it to do what it did the day before, but alas, it still would not go into 5th. I resign myself to pulling the tranny to find out what the problem is and park the car untill I go to work this morning. Same thing happens....make it all the way to 5th, down shift into 4th and then it wont go back into 5th.....lame. The common factor that I have found is that after I park the car for a bit it seems to go into 5th 1 time until I downshift then it wont go. I entertained the thought that maybe a piece of something was loose and possible impeading the tranny from shifting into 5th, but as I said it seems to be ok for 1 shift after the car sits for a bit. Am I losing my mind or is there something that I just don't understand. I am admittedly very undereducated when it comes to transmissions, because, quite frankly, they scare me, but I have a general understanding of how they work. What is going on (read: can anyone tell me how expensive this is going to be)?

 

I can't tell you what the problem is, but 5th was the first gear I lost on mine, followed by reverse, then 3rd... After I let it cool I could, if I was careful and matched the revs, get it to go into 5th. By the time I got mine rebuilt it was little more than a pile of grinding scrap so have no idea what went first, or started causing the problem.

I got a rebuilt box from RE:Worx for about 675 Euro.

 

I once had a transmission on which a Oil Change shop pulled the pin holding 5th gear in place. It and reverse fell out of position and were not available again until the tranny was rebuilt.

 

I thought about the rev match thing (actually I'm lying...AF mentioned it...), but that didn't do anything. I feels to me like something is just in the way. No grinding, no funny noises, just like something is blocking the path.

 

Kronic, are you driving a 3rd gen? If so, the syncro is going bad. I drove mine with the same exact problem for years. Try using very light pressure going into 5th and shifting into 5th earlier than normal (say around 80mph). If the engine has any real reavs the 5th gear syncro seems to stick when the tranny is fully warmed up (once the syncro goes bad that is). Downshifting will only exasurbate the problem. You can probably get it back into 5th after downshifting if you slow way down and shift back into 3rd gear then shift up to 4th and 5th realatively quickly. Hopefully this helps. If I did nothing but confuse you let me know and I'll try and demonstrate what I'm talking about in person. PM me for my cell.

 

I'm the one with the white '89 TII vert. I tried the light pressure, I tried to force it (not carzy force, but force none the less) and nothing....I'm pretty sure it's just my syncros failing, but I'm just trying to gauge what I'm going to have to do to fix it. I needed to upgrade my cluth anyway so I guess it's tranny droppin' time......Oh and btw, keep an eye on the club thread stickied to the top of this forum for our meetings. You are more than welcome to come to any of our meetings even if you aren't in the club. And with the weather the way it has been lately we should be rollin' pretty soon!

 

I have a brand new box advertised in the for sale section in case you can't solve the problem.

 

I have the one that's in the car and a spare that I'm not sure of the condition of because I bought it used with a pile of other parts so if I need to I will just have the spare rebuilt and that way my car won't be down for more than an afternoon. Btw, S4 and S5 trannys are not interchangable correct? Because I also have an S4 tranny in good condition.

 

I believe they are interchangeable but you would need some small fabrication at the rear mounting points. One of both types mounts in a V with bolts at the side of the V while the other mounts in a U shape.

Sorry, this is from the top of my head, I could be wrong.

 

I appreciate the responses!!! Normaly when I ask questions I hear crickets, lol!

 

S4 and S5 TII trans are interchangeable no problem at all, as long as you swap the rear mount (crossmember?) with it. No modifications required, just match mounts with trans and you are fine....atleast on coupe FC's its a proven, not sure on cabrios.

Grinding is problem of the syncros, if you are not experiencing grinding - it just seems to not go there at all, no noise - its more likely something in the shifter linkage getting into the way. Maybe bushing which has fell apart, spring which returns from 5th back to neutral (which breaks often on FC transmissions) and now is floating around in shifter area.

 

same to cabrio. Change the mounts and it will fit straight in.

Just remember, the S4 box has a different final drive.

REgards
Iwan
Iwan